Cornell Opens Climate Change and Agriculture Center

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Cornell UniversityCornell University has started a center to help farmers adapt their operations to climate change.

The Cornell Institute for Climate Change and Agriculture will serve as a clearinghouse for research, climate monitoring, decision-support tools and applications at the intersection of climate and agriculture, the Cornell Chronicle reports.

One of the institute’s first steps will be to develop a website for disseminating and gathering information on farm-level impacts and trends, losses and gains from extreme weather and climate change, according to the university news site.

Allison Morrill Chatrchyan becomes the institute’s first director Sept. 1. Chatrchyan most recently served as environment and energy program leader with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) in Dutchess County and as a member of CCE’s Statewide Energy and Climate Change Team.

In other sustainable agriculture news, almost 100 percent of Canadian farmers agree an environmentally sustainable operation is important to them, according to a BASF Canada poll conducted by Ipsos Reid.

The herbicide resistance telephone poll included a sample of 500 farmers from Western and Eastern Canada with minimum acreage thresholds.

Joel Johnson, herbicide brand manager for BASF Canada, says this shows that for farmers, long-term environmental impacts of their operations is always top of mind.

Earlier this month, Bayer CropScience launched a sustainable cotton program, e3, that the company says provides stringent guidelines for US farmers who grow its Certified FiberMax or Stoneville cotton.

Farmer enrollment is voluntary, but once enrolled, farmers make a commitment to the program and to continuous improvement in productivity, environmental management and personal well-being.

Farm performance is self-evaluated though the Fieldprint Calculator, an online tool designed by sustainable agriculture group Field to Market, and verified with in-season and post-harvest third-party audits.

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